Is Apple opening up the walled garden for car manufacturers?

Patrick George from The Atlantic:

Among all of Apple’s achievements, one of the most underrated has been making driving less miserable. Before Apple CarPlay debuted, about a decade ago, drivers were stuck with whatever clunky tech features were preloaded into their car. By projecting a simplified iPhone layout onto the car’s central screen, CarPlay lets you use apps such as Apple Maps and Spotify without fumbling for your phone, make hands-free calls, and dictate text messages. It is seamless, free, and loved by millions of iPhone owners.

Now one of the world’s biggest car companies is taking it away. Last month, General Motors CEO Mary Barra announced that new cars made by the auto giant won’t support CarPlay and its counterpart, Android Auto. Ditching smartphone mirroring may seem to make as much sense as removing cup holders: Recent preliminary data from AutoPacific, a research firm, suggest that CarPlay and Android Auto are considered must-have features among many new-car shoppers. But according to GM, the company can create an even better experience for drivers by dropping Apple and making its own software. And like it or not, the move says a lot about where the auto industry is headed.

I think GM knows things we don’t know and just can’t say it in public. According to Mary Barra in a recent Decoder interview with Nilay Patel, GM has a great relationship with Apple at the most senior level:

I would say we have a good relationship with Apple. I mean at the most senior level with Apple, with Google, with all of the tech companies. We’re bringing Apple Wallet. We’ll be announcing that shortly, that we’ll have that and have the ability to do some of the vehicle functions through that. So we’re having continual conversations with Apple, and I would say we’re talking about the opportunity and looking for win-wins. We also have a very good relationship with Google and we don’t enable Android Auto either. So I would say you’re talking about a moment in time versus where the industry is heading from Dolby Atmos and the relationship that we have with Apple. I wouldn’t make some of the broad-based assumptions you’re making.

When Nilay asked about getting the Apple Music app on his Cadillac, Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson responds:

We don’t have anything to share on that right now.

There’s obviously a lot of “hush, hush” discussions in the background between car manufacturers and the tech giants, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple decides to change the CarPlay model altogether and make it more compatible with Android Automotive.

Apple Maps has been unleashed from the walled garden allowing Android users to use it, and with their recent update to the App Store web interface, Apple is giving us teasers that maybe, just maybe, they might make their ecosystem more open to say, car manufacturers?

There’s still a few years left before GM tapers off CarPlay for their gas-engine vehicles, but I’m sure there’s a solution in the works that will satisfy Apple, car manufacturers, and consumers.

There has to be.